04 November, 2009

My first meeting today was delayed 20 minutes, so I thought I'd share a bit of what's going on here in Taichung. The overall theme is meeting and eating. The Taiwanese are incredibly hospitable and I'm treated to wonderful and lengthy lunches and dinners, mostly Taiwanese and Chinese food, though last night was French-Japanese fusion. I've probably gained ten pounds. Despite this I did manage to waddle through a few factory tours and even do a little work.

As I mentioned on Twitter, we'll have another production frame in about 6 months, but I won't reveal details for a while. The mixte frames are just entering production and should be ready in late January. It's about the same schedule for the Rando frames, maybe a little sooner.

We may also have semi-custom frames again, but made by a very skilled builder in Taiwan. I think this will be a first for a US company. As the bike industry here grows there is a growing interest in world class quality and high end products, even custom frames. I think the quality of the very best frames here is equal to that of many US custom builders; it's remarkable how quickly the emphasis has shifted from quantity to quality. There are many details to be worked out, but the plan is for a semi-custom frame built to your measurements and fully chrome plated for around $1500. Lead time would be 3-4 months. The first one, in my size, is on order.

I also visited our headset and BB manufacturer and was pleasantly surprised to learn that they will change the way they polish our headsets with the hope of achieving a true mirror finish. We also talked about a super high-end headset that would be smoother and outlast anything on the market today. We are still gathering information and looking for the best bearings in the universe.

We may have a hub with annular bearings soon, but the headset bearings may or may not be annular; too soon to say.

There is no reason to use needle bearings today; the sealed bearing in our current headsets are better than any needle bearings that Stronglight or Miche has or had. Remember that we used to sell needle bearing headsets and I still have some to compare.

I agree with Chris. Needle bearing headsets alone are not the cure for shimmy that some claim they are. Many more factors are at play in regards to causing and curing frame shimmy, especially with low trail bicycles.

My wife is a shorty, and a semi custom frame would be great for her. With short legs and an somewhat short torso, touring bikes are troublesome with standover heights. Cross bikes are troubling due to shorter wheelbases. Touring frame, slightly sloping top tube, 650b wheels?

Against chrome, the BB area usually looks poor, very hard to polish.Internal corrosion from plating chemicals left over from the process. Nasty chemicals to dispose of, workers exposed to nasty chemicals.

I tend to think that it's always about the management, not the people.

Let the Toyota management tell American workers what to do, you get the Toyota Corolla. Reasonably priced, long-lasting, etc. Let the Ford management tell American workers what to do, you get the Ford Pinto.

I initially wrote that as "Japanese" and "American" instead of "Toyota" and "Ford" but I don't really think that's fair, either.

The idea of the semi-custom frame is pretty interesting... but there's a number of smaller US-based builders that can build a fully custom frame and fork for $1,500 or less. What would the advantage of the Taiwanese shop be? Just more standardization and a quicker turnaround?

1. On the cranks -- form or function? Admittedly these are not completely separable, especially for bike parts, but a new/currently available/don't need to download sniping software for auction websites 50.4mm BCD crank, even the Sugino mock-up two piecer using an outboard bottom bracket, would be a help for those looking to play with wide-ranging doubles.

2. Going to see the brake people next?

3. Semicustom: How big can they get? My regular ride group has a tall & wide clydesdale who's not only our regular crazy sprinter but also our regular attacker on climbs. He's somewhat distressed, as both an aesthete and amatuer bike mechanic, that his new Trek 520 is only a 60 CM frame. And MAN did he have to stack that headset. And I don't even want to look too closely at the seatpost because I'm afraid I'd see the insert point notice.

If you do bring out a set of cranks, please make them available in 165mm length, and use different harware from the ta pro5vis. One of those bolts loosened up on me last week and gouged through my bb shell and right chainstay. The crank was also bent up. Thanks

I always dreamt to have a chromed frame. Now I would feel too guilty to own one knowing the nasty environmental impacts and the health risks to the workers in the manufacturing process...Found out about this when looking at replating a nice custom made chrome plated rack. Berthoud gave up on it. Even Singer can't find anybody in France to do a decent quality, and sends parts to the UK to be plated...